Ancestry.com has upgraded its mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. New features include 99-cent in-app purchasing of individual records for non-Ancestry.com subscribers (such as World War I draft cards, census records, birth and death certificates, and school yearbook photos), the "shaky leaf" hints indicating a possible record match to somone in a user's family tree, and easier updating of family trees with information from historical records.

The app, which boasts more than 1.7 million downloads to date, is free from the Apple App Store.

FamilySearch.org has added more than 18 million records from Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Haiti, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Spain, the United States and Venezuela. US records include a Texas death index (provided by Ancestry.com); naturalization index cards from Louisiana, Texas and Wisconsin; county records from several states and more.

SavingOurs.com is a new volunteer group dedicated to saving historical newspapers and other documents. The organization will work with local volunteers, companies and governments to digitize these documents and ensure they're available free to the public. Visit SavingOurs.com to learn more or volunteer.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has started a blog as a four-month-long pilot project. It'll offer tips and tools on LAC's records and navigating its website. Posts so far cover war diaries, Royal Canadian Navy ledger sheets, the newly digitized Lord Elgin collection and more. Visit the LAC Blog here.

Ancestry.com is making its WWII records collection free through Dec. 7 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The collection includes WWII draft registration cards (including some newly added ones), WWII Navy muster rolls (1939-1949), records of Japanese-Americans relocated during the war, US Navy cruise books and more.

Starting today, we're bringing back four of this year's best-selling Ultimate Collections in limited quantities. If you missed these the first time around, now's your chance to grab them:

Ultimate Photo Preservation Collection (25 available):
Tools to help you ensure your family's memories will be around for future generations to enjoy, including the Preserving Your Family Photographs book signed by author Maureen A. Taylor aka the Photo Detective. (This collection sold out in just a few hours the first time around.)

Ultimate Research Trip Collection (25 avaiable): Get the essential advice and supplies you need for visiting archives and courthouses, tromping through ancestral cemeteries and traveling to key research destinations across the country.

Here's the patent on a map of Washington, DC, at the location of the old Patent Office:

Another cool thing you can do is use a transparency slider to overlay a historical image on top of a Google street view of the same scene today. This shows a view from the old Patent Office toward the Treasury building:

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here's a special Monday edition of our weekly news roundup:

Findmypast.ie, the Irish website that FindMyPast.uk introduced earlier this year, has added a feature that lets you build your family tree on the site for free (you’ll need to register for a free account with the site). According to the announcement, it’s the first step in the site’s development of a fully integrated family tree program where you can store photos and historical information.

Are you trying to save and share your family history by putting family stories down on paper?

Here's a great way to capture holiday-related memories: GeneaBloggers announces the return of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories blogging event Dec. 1-24. Each day will present a blogging prompt (such as Christmas cookies—yum!) for bloggers to respond to with memories and family history.

Even if you don't have a blog, you can use the prompts to inspire your writing.

The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories founder, GeneaBloggers' Thomas MacEntee, reports that some bloggers have compiled their posts into books to share with family.

RootsMagic 5 includes more than 80 new feature and enhancements to existing ones. New features include:

Timeline View: Show a person’s life in context with events from his or her own life and the lives of family members.

CountyCheck: Confirm the existence of a county, state, or country on any given date from a multinational database, and correct place-name errors in your family database.

Research Manager: Keep track of research goals, sources and results for a person, family or place in your tree.
“On This Day” List: View family events along with famous births, deaths and historical events for any given day of the year.

Media Tagging: Tag your images and other media with people, families, sources or places. (For example, tag an image of a census record with the people, families and places named in the record, as well as the census source citation.)

Learn more about the updates in a free "What's New in RootsMagic 5?" webinar Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time (7 Eastern, 6 Central, 4 Pacific). If you’re interested, click here to sign up ASAP, as attendance is limited. (FYI, RootsMagic usually puts recordings of past webinars on its website for those who missed them.)

The free RootsMagic 5 Essentials contains many core features from the RootsMagic software, and the two products are fully compatible with one another.

RootsMagic 5 works on Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2000. It’s available online or by calling 1-800-766-8762.

New users can get the software for $29.95. Users of previous versions of RootsMagic and its predecessor, Family Origins, can upgrade to RootsMagic 5 for $19.95.

Your boss told me it’s fine for you to use your lunch hour (plus maybe a few extra minutes) to shop online in honor of Cyber Monday. Honest!* Just make sure you add ShopFamilyTree.com to your must-visit list.